Robert Wilson

The 2014 Armory Show exhibitor list is out, almost two months earlier than last year’s. Other news: The stairs of death will be brought back to connect Piers 92 and 94. Paddy: What? Why????? [Gallerist NY]

Artist Francesco Vezzoli bought a church in the Italian countryside. He wanted to send it to MoMA PS1 for a 2014 exhibition, but Italian officials have prevented it from leaving, citing its cultural importance. PS1 Director Klaus Biesenbach has claimed this faux-pas hints of “real-time performance.” [The New York Times]

A single hair from a polar bear may be cause to authenticate a Pollock that’s long evaded authentication. [The New York Times]

Robert Wilson is coming to The Nasher. Still no definitive word on self-started rumors that he will be collaborating with Jay Z. [Glasstire]

It’s totally unusual for nazi-looted artwork to end up in a museum, but through a series of twists and turns, LACMA will receive a donation of a once-stolen Baroque painting from its rightful owner. [The Los Angeles Times]

The Bronx Museum will this year honor the Yankees at their annual benefit? [In the Air]

Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Quartet closes at The Cloisters December 8th. If you’re going to be in Miami next with us, this means you’ve got a week left to see it. [The Metropolitan Museum of Art]

Jay Z’s performance art debut will premiere on HBO. In the words of Seth Meyers, what could possibly go right? [Rolling Stone]

More Jay Z news. A group of activists known as the Dream Defenders are occupying the capitol building in Tallahassee Florida without Jay Z until the legislature reviews the “Stand Your Ground” law. The law affected the controversial Zimmerman verdict last week. Long time activist Harry Belafonte has joined the cause, and has called out Jay Z for his lack of support. “I would be hard pressed to tell Mr Jay Z what to do with his time and his fortune. I can only be critical of what he is not doing.” Jay Z, in response, told Belafonte that his “presence is charity.” [MSNBC via Heart as Arena]

The real art for the fake movie made by the real CIA operation that inspired the movie Argo is up for auction. [Wired]

Caroline Criado-Perez recently made headlines for finally winning her fight to have prominent women represented on Britain’s bank notes last week. Now she’s taking on Twitter over their apparent inaction in dealing with threats of sexual abuse. [The Independent]

Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center benefit attracted the Hamptons elite and Lady Gaga. And there were a lot of naked ladies. And $1000 meals. [Wall Street Journal]

In another Hamptons benefit, Russell Simmons raised $1.5 million for art programs, auctioning off such fare as “Lunch with Sarah Jessica Parker in New York City,” “Meet LL COOL J & Receive 4 VIP Tickets to the concert of your choice,” and “Enjoy a walk-on role in an upcoming Tyler Perry Production.” [Huffington Post]

In 1926 a Massachusetts professor wrote that he dreamt of “Pictorial organization. The place of subject matter…Fashionable aesthetics: fetish and taboo. Painting and modern life. The Future.” Christopher Shea sources the advent of contemporary art to an extraordinary 1920s seminar at Wellesley College by Alfred Barr. [The Boston Globe]

The Park Avenue Tunnel will reopen to pedestrians this Saturday for an artwork by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer that will remind us all of our mortality. [The New York Times]

I was about 21 when I decided to figure out what avant-garde music sounded like. A friend and I grilled a visiting artist who seemed knowledgeable on the subject, and madly scribbled down the names he mentioned. Then we got radio shows so we could look up all the music. It was 1996, so that’s what you did.

What can a fine art critic say about dance? I’m not going to pretend I have much valuable to say about the craft itself — I know very little about the field — but from the perspective of someone who “looks” for a livingI was not without words for Robert Wilson’s Snow on the Mesa.

The opening night performance by The Martha Graham Dance company kicked off a week long look at the work of the choreographer and dancer Martha Graham (1894-1991) at The Rose Theater, Wilson’s work a portrait of the great artist. So what did I take home about Graham just from watching? A few notes from the performance, fleshed out from their original form.